Perhaps President Obama didn't want to look uncool on his bike ride Thursday, but his decision to skip the helmet had safety experts banging their heads.

Obama, on vacation with his family in Martha's Vineyard, joined the First Lady and his daughters yesterday for a ride in Aquinnah, a town at the western, most rural end of the island.

The President appeared to be the only one with no helmet.

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group in New York, speculated the President might have been concerned about his image.

"Helmets look goofy - you look a little dorky," he said. "When you're the leader of the free world you have to look tough."

White agreed it would have been better if Obama had worn his helmet, but cut him a little slack.

There's a difference between riding on the congestion-clogged streets of Manhattan and a bucolic swath of Massachusetts, he said.

David Mozer, director of the International Bicycle Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group in Seattle, disagreed.

"Most bike accidents just happen. Bicycles up and turn over by themselves, and head injuries are a possible consequence of that," he said. "Head injures don't heal well, and they can be very expensive and life-long."

"It would be great if the President set an example," Mozer said.

Still, Mozer conceded, "It's really hard to get the girl when you're wearing a helmet - they're not real flattering."

But he pointed out bicycling superstar Lance Armstrong looks cool in his helmet.

Last year during the campaign, Obama became the target of ridicule on the Internet when he was photographed riding with a helmet in Chicago.

I am no fan of him, but it’s his call whether or not to wear a helmet.... he should tell the groups to stuff it... Besides, if he were seriously injured, his ObamaCare mentors will discuss with him quality of life and how he has the option to end it all.

These moaning do-gooders kicked off about a statue in a Cincinnati suburb (i.e., inanimate representations of humans made out of bronze) featuring kids riding bikes. There was an expression of exhilaration on their faces but - HORRORS - the sculptor omitted helmets!

Perhaps the most annoying aspect of the Safety Nazis is their naked opportunism: a president, a celebrity, a film, a TV show are there simply to serve as set pieces for their control freakery.

The fetish of bike helmets will die once the deaths and crippling injuries from cervical (neck) injuries moves to the forefront.

If you land on your head, wearing a bike helmet, you are more likely to break and/or dislocate vertebrae in your neck...causing paralysis and/or death. Helmets put more stress on your neck in high-impact crashes and accidents.

I will have to “dig” through my computer files at home, but I think I have a copy of a news story from a few years ago which announced the results of a “surprising” study which had found that bicycle accident fatality rates were INCREASING in areas/localities that adopted mandatory bicycle helmet laws.

And, if I am not mistaken, C1 vertebrae fractures / “hangmans” breaks and brain injury due to major concussions NOT accompanied by skull fractures, appeared to be the primary drivers behind the increase.

ObamaCare mentors will discuss with him quality of life and how he has the option to end it all.

Unfortunately, no. 0bama has exempted himself and congress from having to endure their program. They have their own "special" program - for the elite. Us peasants are the only ones that have to endure the death panels.

41
posted on 08/28/2009 5:44:14 AM PDT
by The Sons of Liberty
(FUBO - No socialist Bureaucrat on a Death Panel is going to decide whether I live or die!)

I started riding a bicycle to deliver the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in Ocean City, NJ, at about age 13. Kept riding throughout my life (so far). Started wearing a helmet way before it was cool, the first one looked like an 'Star Wars Imperial Storm Trooper' helmet. I am a good rider but I have 3 helmets on the shelf that had saved me more serious injury than I got.

I NEVER ride without one and it does not take speed to have an accident. I sincerely wish I had a picture of me when I had my bike standing still and turned the front wheel too far and down I went like the best of the 'prat-fall' comics. Funny now, but I fell HARD and the helmet saved at least a major bruise but probably more.

Having said this, when I see pictures like this of the President, my libertarian ideals and my experience war with each other. I do know one thing, that parents are the very best role models for their kids before they become 'too smart'. It is different to say "wear it because it is the law" versus "wear it because I do".

42
posted on 08/28/2009 5:48:01 AM PDT
by SES1066
(Cycling to conserve, Conservative to save, Saving to Retire, will Retire to Cycle.)

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